Democracy in America — Volume 1

About This Book

Much of Ralph Raico’s scholarly work centers on French classicalliberalism. We are thus especially fortunate to be able to publish an essayby him on one of the greatest French classical liberals of the nineteenthcentury, Alexis de Tocqueville. The essay appears to be an introductionto an edition, which never was published, of Tocqueville’s Democracy inAmerica. Unfortunately, no further information about the essay has yetturned up.Raico notes the fundamental theme in Tocqueville’s book on democracy.Tocqueville thought that democracy and equality were inevitable, buthe feared their onset. The cure was to mold democracy through “The Christian nations of our day seem to me to presenta most alarming spectacle; the movement [toward democracy] whichimpels them is already so strong that it cannot be stopped, but it is not yetso rapid that it cannot be guided. ... A new science of politics is needed fora new world.” If democracy were left unchecked, people would come to lead banallives, guided by the soft despotism of the “I seek to trace the novelfeatures under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thingthat strikes the observer is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal andalike. ... Each exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindredstill remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, whichtakes it upon itself alone to secure their gratifi cations and to watch overtheir fate. Th at power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild.”This dire trend could in part be countered if people were guided byenlightened self-interest, as they were in “In America, the individualunderstands that his own interest is bound up with that of his fellowsand of society as a whole. He realizes that he will prosper if the lawsare upheld and freedom respected — that he will suffer, in the most directand personal way, from the breakdown of order or despotic government.”Self-interest by itself, though, would not suffice to hold despotism atbay. It needed to be supplemented by religion. Tocqueville’s conclusion isall the remarkable because he himself had abandoned the Catholicism ofhis “But self-interest, even when enlightened, and thus no threat tofreedom, still has its Above all, Tocqueville’s old betenoir, thelowering of aspirations and a brutalization of the personality. The remedyfor this is, again, religion. Should the state therefore establish a religion?By no means. The best support that politicians could give to religion, Tocquevillesays, is to act as if they believed in it and act morally themselves.”Raico shows in masterful fashion how Tocqueville’s insights stemmedfrom his historical context and his own distinctive personality. In his stresson social institutions and on the trend toward democracy, Tocqueville wasinfluenced by François Guizot, who like him, was both a historian andpolitical actor. His ambivalence toward the democratic trend manifestedhis own aristocratic personality, impatient of the “Tocquevillescorned the small-minded preference for pleasure over greatness of characterand achievement.” We can say exactly this about Ralph Raicohimself.